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Xxxx 



The Interoceanic Ship Railway.—Tehuantepec the Centre of the World’s Commerce. 





































TIE! IE 


INTEROCEANIC PROBLEM, 

AND 

Its Scientific Solution. 


AN ADDRESS 


Before the American Association for 

i 

the Advancement of Science, 


ELMER L. CORTHELL^ 

u 

Civil Engineer. 

Z U , 1 


THIRTY-FOURTH MEETING, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 


AUGUST 26, 1885. 














THE INTEROCEANIC PROBLEM 


AND ITS 

SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION. 


Ladies and Gentlemen : 

We come before you, representatives of the Advancement of 
Science, to present one of the most important scientific and 
commercial problems of this age. 

The subject (however unworthily it may be treated by us) is full 
of active interest to men representing all those sciences that have to 
do with the advancement of mankind. To geographers, biologists, 
anthropologists, economists, chemists and civil and mechanical 
engineers, this subject, so importantly affecting man in his agricul¬ 
tural, industrial, commercial, social and political relations, is exceed¬ 
ingly attractive. It must be a source of pride also to you, the 
direct descendants and representatives of the science of the ages, 
to know that from you and from those patient and able men of 
the past, have come forth the means for overcoming an obstacle 
that turned Columbus back from his search for the Indies and 
baffled Cortez in his efforts to reach the Pacific and its long sought 
for islands and countries. 

More than three centuries and a half have passed and with them 
have not only come new and greater wants among mankind, but new 
and greater resources and power. Our wants develop, but our 
power develops also. Whatever necessity may arise in any age, 
science always furnishes the means to supply it. 

One of the greatest wants of this age is prompt, free and econ¬ 
omical exchange of its productions, and the removal of the 
obstructions to its industries and commerce. The railway, tele¬ 
graph, ocean cable and the steamship have supplied wants, but have 



6 


created greater ones. No nation of the earth can now afford to be 
a stranger to any other. Distance and time must be annihilated. 
The improvement of the means of communication to ensure speed 
and economy is the study of the age. One barrier broken down, our 
efforts need all the more to be expended on the next that stands in 
the way. Some mountain range that stood unnoticed and even un¬ 
discovered, when the Red Man roamed over its slopes and through 
its passes, becomes a most serious obstacle when the surveys of the 
engineers place it in the projected pathway of the locomotive. 

The obstacles to commerce one after another have disappeared. 
The building of the iron ship and the invention of the propeller have 
brought the two shores of the Atlantic within a week of each other. 
The ocean cable has reduced the week to a moment. The network 
of telegraph wires spread over the continents makes near neighbors 
of far removed districts. The steel ribbons and the iron horse bind 
together distant sections. The Suez Canal, cut through the marshes 
of the Egyptian desert, from the Mediterranean to the Arabian 
Gulf, has shortened the distance from England to Calcutta forty-five 
hundred miles, revolutionized the carrying trade of the world and 
made it possible for England to hold, civilize and develop all her 
eastern possessions. In every direction civilization, through its 
numerous improvements in transportation, shortens distance and 
reduces the cost of moving the products of the world. 

But, while all this wonderful advance is recorded, there lies here 
(see frontispiece) in the centre of the world, midway between the 
far Pacific and Atlantic countries, with a broad ocean on either 
hand, a continent extending nearly the whole distance from the 
North to the South Pole, without a passage-way anywhere for ocean 
or coastwise commerce. Brave men and able navigators, some of 
whom have laid down their lives in the frozen seas, have for many 
years, supported by the civilized governments of the world, sought 
in vain for the Northwest Passage around this obstacle to commerce. 
The only practicable opening between the east and the west lies 
between Cape Horn and the Southern Pole. Stretched along the 
western coast of this great continent from the extreme North to 
the far South is an immense wall of rock, piled up by nature so 
high that it forms an effectual barrier to the necessary economies 
of the age. If in the northern part of the narrow neck of land, 
that unites the great mass of the northern and southern halves 
of the continent, Nature in her ancient convulsions had rent the 
land asunder, mingled the seas and opened a capacious passage¬ 
way, as at the Straits of Magellan or Gibraltar, we would not be 


i 


here this evening to state and discuss this important interoceanic 
problem. She did not do this work for us, but she provided a 
place the most convenient for a passage-way, and there so arranged 
the harbors, rivers, valleys, depressions between the mountains, the 
slopes of the country and the constructive materials, that the 
advanced science of this century might build a way over where 
she, with all her mighty forces, could not break a way through. 

In order to fully appreciate the importance of promptly, effec¬ 
tively and economically solving the Interoceanic problem, it is neces¬ 
sary to study carefully the relations of the countries of the world to 
each other ; to obtain detailed information of the character and 
volume of their productions, the routes by which they now move 
and the demand that exists in one country for the agricultural, 
manufactured or mineral products of other countries. It is neces¬ 
sary to understand the peculiarity of the laws of trade in different 
countries. We need information also about the character of the 
races and the nations, their history, their methods of business, their 
development or decadence—in fact the whole commercial, industrial 
and political subject in all its various forms must be familiar to us. 
With such information possessed there will certainly come to us 
the belief—nay more, the conviction—that the importance of uniting 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for commerce cannot be understated, 
and that, if there is aught in Science to produce the grand result 
desired, it should be called on for its best assistance and its latest 
discoveries, in order that the correct principles and the most power¬ 
ful appliances may be combined in a successful effort to overcome 
the barrier. 

Taking up a few only of the commercial reasons for this impor¬ 
tant work, we call your attention, in the first place, to the fact that 
although the continent has been crossed by five lines of railroad 
they cannot profitably transport many important bulky products. 
The cereals and the valuable woods of the Pacific coast cannot 
reach European markets by these trans-continental routes ; even 
the Panama Railroad, hardly fifty miles in length, cannot afford to 
do this work, so great is the expense of trans-shipment; in fact, the 
trans-continental railroads, ov er j hree thousand miles in length, 
can carry goods with less cost 'titan can the Panama Railroad Route. 
The cereals, nearly 1,200,000 tons per annum, still pursue their 
voyage of sixteen thousand miles, around .Cape Horn, occupying 
from four to five months, to reach the market of the world at Liver¬ 
pool. The importance to our Pacific coast of shortening the distance 
for this commerce alone will be seen by the following facts. It 


8 


costs only eight cents per day for labor to raise Indian wheat. En¬ 
gland has expended, and is still expending millions to irrigate this 
vast and populous country. She is extending the railroad system to 
its most remote districts in order to transport the wheat to the sea¬ 
board, and she then brings it to her ports by the shortened route of the 
Suez Canal. Still our Pacific States, with their admirable climate 
and fertile soil, can compete successfully in the world’s markets if 
we can shorten the route one-half, the time two months and rela¬ 
tively reduce the cost of transportation. The valuable and in¬ 
exhaustible woods of the Pacific will find a ready market on both 
the Atlantic coasts if an all-water route can be obtained eight 
thousand miles shorter than by Cape Horn. 

The Isthmian barrier not only prevents the development of our 
own Pacific coast, but obstructs and hampers the important com¬ 
merce of the west coast of South America. The extensive and 
valuable products of Colombia, Chili and Peru must pass south¬ 
ward around Cape Horn on a circuitous route to New York or 
Liverpool. Again, in the interchange of our manufactured goods 
for the raw materials of the Pacific coasts, Australasia, Malaysia and 
Polynesia, we are debarred from these important markets by the 
same insurmountable obstacle. By the impetus given to the devel¬ 
opment of the far Pacific countries by the opening of the Suez 
Canal, their commerce has increased one hundred and fifty per cent, 
in the last five years, and now amounts to nearly two billion dollars 
per annum. Australia alone has a railway system six thousand miles 
in length and a foreign commerce of about four hundred million dol¬ 
lars. She imports from us a small quantity of nearly all of our man¬ 
ufactured articles, which find their way thither by many indirect 
and expensive routes, and generally in foreign ships. It is interest¬ 
ing to note the routes by which many products move. Of the tea 
shipped from Japan to New York last year, about one-half, sixteen 
million pounds, went across the Pacific to San Francisco, and 
was there put aboard the cars and hauled across the continent ; the 
other half went down the Asiatic coast, through the Indian Ocean, 
Suez Canal, the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean. On 
account of our inability to reach Pacific ports, and the absence of 
our ships there, many of the goods shipped from Peruvian and 
other South American ports to New York are sent to Liverpool on 
English ships, and are thence re-shipped across the Atlantic. Of 
all the vast commerce of the Pacific our country enjoys only four 
per cent. 

Forty-five millions of our people live east of the Rocky Moun- 


tains, and produce nearly all the manufactured goods of the country 
which amount annually to the enormous total of over five 
billion dollars ( $5,000,000,000) in value. Not being able to reach 
economically or promptly the countries that have need of these 
manufactured articles, we export but two per cent . of them, 
and must yield to those countries of Europe which manufacture 
them at less cost and are much nearer to the markets. The annual 
internal commerce of the United States however, amounts to 
$12,000,000,000—400,000,000 tons. One train of cars transport¬ 
ing this freight would girdle the earth seven times. Special at¬ 
tention is called to the unfortunate position of the Mississippi 
Valley and its seaports on the Gulf ; with only eight hundred 
miles between them and the Pacific, they cannot reach it 
except by a voyage around Cape Horn, which absolutely prevents 
the interchange of business. Our whole eastern and southern coast 
can send its products Eastward, but to the Westward is an impassa¬ 
ble barrier, and Westward are six hundred million people just now 
opening their rich treasures to civilization and commerce. The dwell¬ 
ers on the west coast of South America, Mexico and our own Pacific 
coast, although seemingly our nearest neighbors, are practically re¬ 
moved farther from us than the East Indies are by way of the Suez 
Canal. 

The over-sea commerce of the globe is now upwards of four¬ 
teen billion dollars, and is increasing at the rate of seventy-five 
per cent, every decade ; so that, if ten years ago it was important to 
solve the Isthmian problem, it is more important to-day, and 
will be still more so ten years hence. Had we time and space 
we could bring forward a mass of evidence in detail that would 
prove the absolute necessity of a passage-way through or over 
the narrow neck of land separating the two great oceans. For 
nearly four centuries this important subject has been before the 
world with continually increasing interest 

A volume could be written giving the history of the attempts of 
governments, companies and individuals to find a passage-way for 
commerce across the American Isthmus. England, France, Spain, 
Portugal, The Netherlands and the United States, as Governments, 
have from time to time interested themselves in explorations of the 
country. Beginning at the Southern extremity, surveys have been 
made by Galva of Portugal in 1550 ; Galestro of Spain in 1780 ; 
Humboldt, Garella, Trautwine, Kennish, Mitchler, Craven, Strain, 
Collins, Selfridge, Wyse, Reclus, Childs, Hatfield, Lull, McFarland, 
Menocal, Moro, Barnard, Williams, Shufeldt, Garay and Van 


10 


Brocklin. The records of their surveys are on file with the 
governments, companies or individuals by whom they were 
employed. Statesmen, economists, commercial men and engineers 
have always taken a deep interest in the subject : Of our own 
statesmen Jackson, Webster, Buchanan, Fillmore, Cass, Grant and 
Arthur were especially active in urging interoceanic communi¬ 
cation. The statesmen of Mexico, from Cortez to General Diaz, 
have been urgent for it, and the same may be said Of the statesmen 
of the smaller states of the Isthmus. In plain and forcible language, 
General Grant said in 1881, in the North American Review: 

“The States of North and South America, lying along the 
“ Pacific, furnish in large abundance those commodities which 
“ are constantly needed in the markets of almost every country 
“ of Europe. Of guano and nitre the trade is immense. From 
“ the ports of Chili, nearly four hundred thousand tons of 
“ freight are shipped eastward annually. More than one 
“ million tons of grain are shipped each year from the Pacific States 
“ and Territories. There is no doubt that more than 4,000,000 
“ tons of merchandise find their way from the east and require 
“ water communication, in order that they may be shipped econo- 
“ mically and profitably, and this is merchandise to which railway 
“ transportation across the continent is wholly inapplicable.” 

In a message to Congress last year, President Arthur thus 
earnestly presented the salient points of this important subject : 

“ While the enterprise of our citizens has responded to the duty 
“of creating means of speedy transit by rail between the two oceans, 
“ these great achievements are inadequate to supply a most important 
“ requisite of national union and prosperity. For all maritime pur- 
“ poses, the States upon the Pacific are more distant from those upon 
“ the Atlantic than if separated by either ocean alone. Europe and 
“ Africa are nearer New York, and Asia is nearer to California than 
“are these two great States to each other by sea. Weeks of steam 
“ voyage, or months under sail, are consumed in the passage round the 
“ Horn, with the disadvantage of traversing tempestuous waters or risk- 
“ ing the navigation of the Straits of Magellan. A nation like ours 
“ cannot rest satisfied with such a separation of its mutually dependent 
“members. We possess an ocean border of considerably over ten 
“ thousand miles on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and, including 
“ Alaska, of some ten thousand miles on the Pacific. Within a gen¬ 
eration the western coast has developed into an empire,with a large 
“ and rapidly growing population, with vast but partially developed 


11 


resources. At the present rate of increase, the end of the century 
will see us a commonwealth of, perhaps, nearly a hundred million 
inhabitants, of which the west should have a considerable larger and 
“ richer proportion than now. * * * 

“ ^ h e relation of these American countries” (Pacific Coast of South 
“America,) “to the United States is that of a natural market from 
which the want of direct communication has hitherto practically ex¬ 
cluded us. By piercing the Isthmus the heretofore insuperable 
‘obstacles of time, sea, and distance disappear, and our vessels and 
productions will enter upon the world’s competitive field, with a de- 
“ cided advantage of which they will avail themselves. * * * 

“ It will bring European grain markets of demand within easy 
“ distance of our Pacific, and will give to the manufacturers on the At- 
“ lantic seaboard economical access to the cities of China, thus break¬ 
ing down the barrier which separates the principal manufacturing 
“ centres of the United States from the markets of the vast population 
“of Asia, and placing the Eastern States of the Union for all pur- 
“ poses of trade, midway between Europe and Asia.” 

Without giving the detailed results of the many surveys and ex¬ 
aminations that have been made of the American Isthmus, it may 
be said that the various routes have been resolved into three, viz : 
Panama, Nicaragua and Tehuantepec. The length of the Isthmus 
from Tehuantepec to Panama is about twelve hundred statute miles, 
or equal to the distance between New York and the Florida Straits. 
The Isthmus varies in height and width, now rising to a considerable 
altitude and now sinking into low depressions. At Panama it is 
scarcely fifty miles wide, at another point only thirty-one miles, at 
Nicaragua, following the natural depression, one hundred and eighty- 
six miles and at Tehuantepec one hundred and thirty-four miles, be¬ 
tween navigable waters. At the Southern extremity of the Isthmus, 
there exists, on either side, a region of calms and baffling*winds 
termed “ Doldrums.” This is caused partly by the peculiar config¬ 
uration of the West India Islands, which present an almost continu¬ 
ous barrier On the east of the Caribbean Sea, and partly by the 
mountain ranges of the Isthmus, which offer a still more formidable 
obstacle to the passage of the north-east trades, throwing them high 
into the upper regions of the atmosphere and extending the calms 
far out into the Pacific Ocean, on the parallel of Panama. This 
whole region is shunned by navigators of sailing vessels, who often run 
a thousand miles out of their course to avoid it. The nautical con¬ 
ditions that exist at the Northern part of the Isthmus, near Tehuan- 




12 


tepee, are much different, and much more favorable to sailing vessels. 
Lieut. Maury, an undisputed authority in geography and navigation, 
stated that should a convulsion of nature rend asunder the Darien 
Isthmus, no sailing ship would use the strait thus formed, but in ref¬ 
erence to the conditions existing in the northern part of the Isthmus 
his eloquent words are well worth giving : 

“From the Gulf of Mexico, the great commercial markets of the 
“ world are down-hill. A vessel bound from that gulf to Europe, 
“ places herself in the current of the Gulf Stream and drifts along 
“ with it at the rate, for part of the way, of eighty or one hundred 
“ miles a day. * * * And when there shall be estab- 

“ lished a commercial thoroughfare across the Isthmus, the trade 
“ winds of the Pacific will place China, India, New Holland, and all 
“ the islands of that ocean down-hill from this sea of ours. In that 
“ case, Europe must pass by our very doors on the great highway to 
“ the markets both of the East and West Indies. This beautiful 
“ Mesopotamian sea is in a position to occupy the summit level of 
“ navigation, and to become the great commercial receptacle of the 
“ world. Our rivers run into it, and float down with their currents 
“ the surplus articles of merchandise that are produced upon their 
“ banks. Arrived with them upon the bosom of this grand marine 
“ basin, there are the currents of the sea and the winds of heaven, 
“ so arranged by nature that they drift it and waft it down-hill and 
“ down stream to the great market-places of the world.” 

Commodore Shufeldt said in 1871, in an official report of his 
survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, “each isthmus rises into 
“ importance as it lies nearer to the centre of American commercial 
“ interests ; any intrinsic value of this eminently national work 
“ ought to be based upon the inverse ratio of the distance from that 
“ centre.” An all-water route by way of Tehuantepec connects the 
east and west coast lines of the United States and Mexico, and ren¬ 
ders our own territory circumnavigable, as it were. 

Lying nearly ten degrees north of Panama, the climate at 
Tehuantepec is much more healthy and the heat less’ intense. In 
reference to the commercial advantage of this northern route, it 
needs no argument to prove that that route is the shortest, and, other 
things being equal, the best, which lies nearest the axial line of pro¬ 
ductions, population and business, which approximately may be 
assumed to pass through Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York 
and Liverpool. The Tehuantepec route is shorter than the Panama 
by from seven hundred to twenty-two hundred miles, depending 


18 


upon the ports to be connected. In general, the advantages of this 
northern route are, favorable winds, a healthy climate, great saving 
in distance, good harbors, a location in a strong neighboring repub¬ 
lic, and not in an insurrectionary country with an unstable govern¬ 
ment, a defensible route and a country well adapted for what we 
consider to be the proper method of interoceanic transit, viz.: by 
a Ship Railway. 

The great importance to this country to possess a route advan¬ 
tageous to sailing vessels, will be seen from the fact that there are, 
sailing under the American flag, six thousand two hundred and four¬ 
teen sailing vessels engaged in over-sea commerce, and only four 
hundred and twenty-two steamships. We can build wooden sailing 
ships cheaper than any other nation in the world ; the cost is about 
fifty dollars per registered ton, whereas in England it is seventy-five 
dollars, but England can build iron ships for fifty-five dollars per 
ton, whereas the cost in this country is seventy-five dollars. The 
interoceanic route that would prohibit sailing vessels would drive 
our commerce from the seas. 

The preceding brief sketch gives the general conditions of the 
problem before us, geographical, commercial, industrial and politi¬ 
cal. The scientific solution of the problem is that one which most 
nearly satisfies these conditions, is most closely in accord with the 
science of this age, gives a method adequate, not only for the 
commerce of this, but the coming centuries, is best adapted to 
the country to be traversed, most economical in construction, main¬ 
tenance and operation and will despatch vessels from ocean to ocean 
with the greatest speed and safety. 

We propose, now, to describe and explain what we believe to be 
this scientific solution. We will attempt to show that the method 
by ship railway is far better than any other and is most nearly in 
accord with the scientific tendencies and developments of this last 
quarter of the nineteenth century, and is far more capable than any 
other method of meeting the wants of the coming ages. The fol¬ 
lowing description, supplemented by the stereoscopic views of the 
plans and by the plates which accompany this address, will, we 
think, prove the practicability and the economy of the ship railway. 

The ship railway involves no new principle, but the application on 
a large scale of the principles and appliances that are well-known 
among scientific and practical men. The hauling of vessels and of 
boats overland is no new thing. It has been done in various coun¬ 
tries and at different times in all parts of the civilized world, from 


14 


four hundred years before Christ, when the Athenians transported 
th^ir immense triremes of about one hundred and fifty tons weight, 
over the Isthmus of Corinth, to this day, when large ships are hauled 
out of the water on marine railways, or lifted on hydraulic docks 
and then hauled ashore. It is interesting to note that Emmanuel 
Swedenborg, under Charles XII of Sweden, at the siege of Fred- 
erickshall in 1718, transported some vessels over fourteen miles of 
rough country, by rolling machines of his own design. We therefore 
simply utilize for a great work what science has taught and devel¬ 
oped during the last twenty-three hundred years. 

Twenty-five miles from the Gulf, at Minatitlan, in the broad, deep 
river Coatzacoalcos, a basin will be excavated to admit the vessels to 
the lifting dock, which will be constructed of steel plates with sub¬ 
stantial bulkheads in each direction, and will be about four hundred 
and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and from twelve to fifteen 
feet deep, and capable of raising vessels of from six to seven thousand 
tons weight. One of the objections that is continually urged against 
lifting loaded vessels is the fact that they would bring upon the 
carriage, or car, unequal weights. One of the special designs of the 
dock is an appliance for equalizing the weight of the vessel 
and distributing it perfectly over the whole area of the 
carriage which tranports it. This distribution of weight 
is effected by a system of hydraulic rams or presses. 
These rams are situated on a deck placed about six feet below the 
upper deck of the lifting dock, or pontoon. They are arranged so that 
there will be the same area of pressure on every cross line. These 
cross lines are spaced six feet and seven inches apart, and the 
number in each line corresponds to its position under the vessel ; 
those under the midship section of the vessel having seven rams ; 
those nearer the bow or stern five and then three rams ; while under 
the bow or stern the whole supporting area is concentrated into one 
ram. These rams are also arranged in seven longitudinal lines: 
one, composed of the most powerful rams, under the keel and 
one on each side under the bottom, bilges and sides of the 
vessel. These rams, one hundred and thirty to one hundred and 
fifty in number, are all connected together by pipes, and the 
whole system is actuated by steam pressure pumps, which are 
placed on the top of towers that are connected with the pontoon and 
move with it, but are not submerged when the pontoon goes into 
the water. These rams have a range of movement of seven or eight 
feet, which permits them to take the shape of the vessel, whatever 
its model may be. The carriage transporting the vessel is supplied 


15 


with corresponding supports, so placed in the carriage that they 
can be brought directly over the rams in the pontoon. The 
carriage has a continuous keel-block running from one end to the 
other. 1 he other supports are provided at the upper end with a 
broad surface hinged with a universal joint, so as to take the shape 
of the vessel. These supports, as well as those under the con¬ 
tinuous keel block, move freely in the girders of the carriage 
and project below them when the carriage is in position on the pon¬ 
toon. The principal strength of the carriage is in its cross girders, 
the short longitudinal girders connecting them being intended only 
to transfer the weight to the wheels. In order to raise the vessel the 
carriage is run upon the pontoon, which is provided with six rails, 
and is locked in position so as to bring the supports directly 
over the rams. The water is then let into the dock and it sinks 
to the foundations in the bottom of the basin, or to a sufficient depth 
to allow the vessel to be floated in over it without interfering 
with the supports of the carriage. The water is then pumped out of 
the pontoon by means of powerful centrifugal pumps, and it rises up 
under the vessel. Just before coming into contact with it, the pres¬ 
sure pump is set at work, and the rams rise up under the keel block 
and the other supports, bringing them up to the hull of the vessel. 
As the pontoon continues to rise, bringing the vessel with it, the 
rams, on which the supports rest, equalize the constantly increasing 
weight and distribute it in such a manner that, when the vessel is 
entirely out of the water and its weight rests upon the rams alto¬ 
gether, they bear it equally from stem to stern and from side to 
side, which equality of pressure must necessarily result from 
the peculiar arrangement of the areas of the rams, previously 
described. A thread is cut in the supports, in which moves an ad¬ 
justing nut, or hand-wheel, which is run down to a bearing on the 
upper plate of the cross girders. When this work has been per¬ 
formed, the valves of the pressure pumps are opened and the water is 
allowed to escape from under the rams, when they recede downward 
into the pontoon, leaving the vessel supported on the carriage exactly 
as it was supported on the rams. 

In order to compel the pontoon, as it is raised or lowered, to move 
in a perfectly horizontal plane, hydraulic governors are attached 
to the corners of the pontoon and the outside dock ; the mechanism 
of these governors being as follows: An upright cylinder on each 
corner of the outside dock is connected by a pipe with an inverted 
cylinder on the opposite diagonal corner. Attached to each corner 
of the pontoon are two plungers, which move in the cylinders ; one 


of these plungers being upright and the other inverted. The 
cylinders and the pipes are filled solid with water.. When the vessel 
is being raised out of the water a greater weight may be brought 
upon one end of the pontoon than upon the other, as it would be 
impossible to bring the vessel in so that its centre of gravity would 
be exactly over the centre of the pontoon. The effect would be 
that one end of the pontoon would not be able to rise as 
rapidly as the other end ; this would cause the pontoon in its 
movement to bind upon the guiding cylinders, upon which it moves, 
and thus prevent its further movement. One-half the preponder¬ 
ance of weight is suspended on one plunger at the heavy end and 
one-half upon the other ; this brings a pressure upon the water in 
the cylinders which immediately reacts through the pipes in the 
top of the cylinders at the diagonal corners, and exerts the same 
amount of downward pressure upon the plungers in those cylinders. 
This compels the pontoon to rise and fall perfectly level. These 
governors also serve the important purpose of determining by 
a pressure gauge what the preponderance of weight is. If the 
gauge should show it to be more than it is possible to equalize 
upon the carriage, it would be necessary to lower the pontoon 
and re-adjust the position of the vessel over it. The time re¬ 
quired to lift the maximum sized vessel is from fifteen to twenty 
minutes. It is practicable to perform the whole work of bringing 
the vessel in, raising it, and adjusting the supports ready for trans¬ 
portation on the railway, in thirty minutes time. 

The road-bed will be constructed of the best materials which can 
be found. It will be about fifty feet in width. There will be under 
the ties two feet of broken stone ballast; these ties will be about 
forty feet in length, formed of steel plates on which will rest the steel 
rails, whose weight will be from one hundred to one hundred and 
twenty pounds per lineal yard. In other words, a perfect marine 
railway will be constructed from one terminus to the other which 
will be abundantly able to hold up the heaviest weight that may be 
placed upon it. It will readily be seen that the distribution of 
weight, by the system of rams, not only allows us to bring a uniform 
weight over each wheel, and one that it is abundantly able to sus¬ 
tain, but also distributes the weight over a large area on the road¬ 
bed, and thus prevents a concentrated weight being brought upon 
any part of it. The maximum load to be transported will not bring 
upon any one wheel more than eight and one-half or nine tons. 
These wheels will be tested, when manufactured, to twenty tons. 
There will be over each wheel a powerful spring, which will also be 


17 


tested to twenty tons, and will have a movement of six or seven 
inches, so that when the greatest load is upon it, it will not be 
closed within three or four inches. This gives an elastic bearing for 
the vessel and carriage. If there should be any irregularity in the 
track, these springs will serve to take it up, without bringing any 
undue weight upon the wheels. 

The vessels will be hauled across the Isthmus by powerful loco¬ 
motives. The engines, such as have been built recently by the Baldwin 
Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, for the Dom Pedro Railway in 
Brazil, have sufficient power. That company guarantees that three 
such engines, weighing sixty-five gross tons each, will haul the maxi¬ 
mum sized vessel at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, if necessary, on 
grades up to twenty feet to the mile. A system of adhesion and rack- 
rail combined, has been recently put into practice on a railway in 
the Hartz mountains, which it is claimed has double the power 
of the ordinary locomotive hauling by adhesion alone ; experimental 
tests, with a fifty-four ton engine, built on this principle, showed 
that a train of two hundred and fifty tons weight could be hauled 
at twenty miles an hour on a six per cent, grade ; could be stopped 
on that grade, and backed, and hauled ahead again without any 
difficulty. The grades to be overcome at the Isthmus of Tehuan¬ 
tepec are very light. The larger part of the distance is practically 
level ; there is one grade of one per cent, twelve miles in length. 

The railway traverses a succession of valleys. In the hilly 
part of the Isthmus, in order to avoid heavy construction work, it 
is necessary to make abrupt changes of direction. As it would be 
impracticable to move a rigid carriage of such great length with a 
vessel upon it, around a sharp curve, these changes of direction, five 
in number, are made by floating turn-tables, which are simply great 
pontoons, or floating docks, which are placed in a segmental basin 
of masonry or concrete. When the vessel is drawn upon the pon¬ 
toon the latter rests solidly upon the circular bearers in the bottom 
of the basin ; stability being given to it by the weight of water in it. 
In order to turn the pontoon to the new direction required, the water 
is pumped out of it sufficiently to just raise it from the foundations 
on which it rests. It is then, while floating, turned about a central 
pivot; although the weight does not rest upon the pivot, but entirely 
upon the water. When the pontoon is revolved so that the rails 
upon it coincide with the rails of the railway, in the new direction, 
the water is admitted to the pontoon and it again rests upon the 
circular bearers. The vessel is then hauled off the pontoon upon 
the railway. 


18 


These turn-tables will be utilized for passing points, or sidings—so 
that while the railway is virtually a single track road, vessels may 
meet and pass each other. By laying radial tracks from these 
basins, vessels can be run out, as on marine railways for cleaning, 
painting and repairing. About $1000 will thus be saved to the vessel 
over the cost of docking in ports. Considerable work of this kind 
can also be done while the vessel is in transit. 

The admissible lateral motion in the journals and on the treads 
of the wheels is sufficient to make a curve of 20 miles radius 
perfectly practicable. The curves laid down on the location of the 
railway are from 20 to 53 miles. By these curves advantage is 
taken of the general lines of the country, and serious obstacles are 
avoided. 

A vertical curve at the changes of grade, of about the same 
radius, is admissible by utilizing the movement of the springs and 
the elasticity which the carriage and its burden have in a longitudi¬ 
nal direction. 

It is expected that the practicable speed will average eight or ten 
miles an hour,, and it is intended to so construct the whole work, 
road-bed, rolling stock and other appliances as to make this speed 
perfectly safe. The whole distance is one hundred and thirty-four 
miles, and it is estimated that eighteen or twenty hours is amply 
sufficient to transfer the vessel from one ocean to the other. 

In laying out and constructing the road-bed, the possible future 
enlargement necessary for larger vessels, wider carriages and greater 
traffic will be provided for by building the foundations sufficiently 
wide to permit double tracking the railway. The docks at the 
•termini can also be duplicated, or even triplicated, when commerce 
demands it. 

There are, on either side of the Isthmus, natural harbors, which 
with comparatively inexpensive improvements, can be made ample 
for the accommodation of the business. The surveys of the Isth¬ 
mus, which have been very extensive and detailed, embracing all 
the information necessary for a reliable estimate, show that suitable 
materials are conveniently at hand for constructing the work ; and 
that the total cost, including the improvements of the harbors, the 
mechanical appliances, rolling stock and a full equipment of every¬ 
thing necessary for operating the railway will not be over fifty mil¬ 
lion dollars in cash. 

It is impossible in a brief address to give all the details that may 
be necessary for a complete exposition of the mechanical appli¬ 
ances to be used in the ship railway, but as the subject has been 


19 


fully considered by a large number of prominent scientific and prac¬ 
tical experts, their opinions will serve to give corroborative proof of 
the practicability of the plans. Brief extracts only can here be given 
from, in many cases, lengthy opinions furnished by these experts. 

Sir Edward J. Reed, for many years chief constructor of the 
British Navy, who has given the matter much study, states: “I 
affirm that the general structural strains which are likely to be 
brought upon a ship by lifting and transporting her, presuming, of 
course, that reasonable skill and care are applied to these processes, 
are inferior, much inferior to those strains to which every ocean¬ 
going ship is continually liable at sea. * * * As regards the 

comparative economy of transporting a ship’s cargo by canal or 
railway, I am inclined to believe that the railway would prove the 
more economical of the two. * * * I have, therefore, no words 

but those of encouragement for a ship-railway, regarded from my 
point of view as a ship-builder, accustomed for a life time (which 
is getting now to be a long one) to the designing, building, repairing 
and docking of both wood and iron ships.” 

Mr. Nathaniel Barnaby, present chief constructor of the British 
Navy says : “I note, therefore, the question you wish to put to me, 
which is : ‘ do I think the problem insoluble of constructing a car on 
which a fully loaded ship can be safely transported over such a rail¬ 
way as could be built through a tolerably level country ? ’ In reply 
to this, I say not only that it is soluble, but that the solution is, in 
my opinion, fairly indicated in your plans as laid before the com¬ 
mittee on Inter-Oceanic Canals and shown to me. Ships which 
would be strained by ordinary docking would be liable to be strained 
also when suspended on a car not specially designed for their crazy 
condition ; but such ships would be still more strained in their 
ordinary sea passages.” 

Mr. William John, recently scientific adviser of Lloyd’s Register, 
and Mr. Martell, present adviser of Lloyd’s, have both given un¬ 
equivocally a favorable opinion of the ship railway. 

Mr. George Fosbery Lyster, Engineer-in-chief, Liverpool Docks, 
states : “ I have now been able to give the whole matter, as far as 

its engineering features are concerned, very careful consideration, 
and have concluded that if the permanent way, cradle arrangements, 
and general details are carried out in the ingenious and substantial 
manner you described, there will, in my judgment, be little or no 
difficulty in transporting properly constructed ships from sea to sea 
with entire convenience and safety.” 


20 


Mr. John Fowler, who, as consulting engineer of the Egyptian 
government, projected a ship railway for the first cataract of the 
Nile, states : “After a very careful investigation of the alternative 
plans of canal and ship railway on the spot, I decided in favor 
of the railway; having satisfied myself that there was no mechanical 
difficulty in carrying ships of any size, without injury to themselves, on 
a properly designed car or cradle over a solidly constructed railway.” 

Mr. E. Leader Williams, Chief Engineer of the Manchester Ship 
Canal and of the Trent and Mersey Canal, and originator 
of the celebrated Anderton Hydraulic Canal Lift, states : “ I believe 
that your ship railway only requires carrying out into execution to 
prove most successful in every way.” 

Messrs. Clark and Standfield—Mr. Edwin Clark having been the 
chief assistant of Robert Stephenson in the building of the cele¬ 
brated tubular bridge over the Menai Straits, and who introduced 
the hydraulic vertical lift system at the Victoria Docks, and at Malta 
and Bombay, say: “We apprehend no difficulty in perfecting the 
necessary details of the plans, so as to insure the safe transportation of 
the largest loaded ships on the railway cars with absolute safety.” 

Emerson, Murgatroyd & Co., who, as contractors, built the 
hydraulic docks at Malta and Bombay, and the Anderton lift, say : 
“We have no hesitation in guaranteeing the lifting of a fully loaded 
ship or steamer of 8,000 or 10,000 tons’ weight on a railway car from 
the sea or harbor level to that of your permanent way in 30 minutes, 
with absolute safety to the ship and the works, where the lift is not 
over 50 feet vertically. We will undertake to construct all the plans 
and works necessary to do this at each end of your line, and com¬ 
plete everything ready for attaching the locomotive to the car on 
which the ship is to be lifted and transported ; this car, or any 
number of them, we will furnish also.” 

Mr. William Pearce, sole proprietor of John Elder & Company’s 
works, Govan, Glasgow, and who built the Arizona, Elbe, Alaska 
and Etruria, and others of the finest steamers afloat, says: 

“ I am of opinion from what I know of the working of iron float¬ 
ing docks that I have designed and built, that iron steamers of 4,000 
to 5,000 tons displacement may be docked, loaded, without any 
injury whatever. It is also my opinion that a ship railway for 
vessels of this size may be constructed and worked successfully, 
provided the land is solid and the line moderately level.” 

Mr. B. Baker, one of the ablest engineers of England, and at 


21 


present chief engineer of the great bridge now being constructed at 
the Firth of Forth, states : 

“ The general laws affecting the strength of materials apply to iron 
and steel ships as to other metallic structures, and in order to show 
that any of the above injuries could result, I have satisfied myself, 
by long and careful investigation, it is first necessary to assume 
either criminal negligence or a singularly badly designed car. In 
other words, apart from all practical experience in dry docks and 
elsewhere, it can be theoretically demonstrated that a vessel which 
would not break up at sea in an ordinary gale, would not be injured by 
transport in a well-constructed car, on a suitably formed railway.” 

Professor Francis Elgar, Fellow of the Royal School of Naval 
Architecture, and until recently general manager of Earle’s Ship 
Building and Engineering Company, and a naval architect of 
recognized ability, states : 

“ As to transporting a loaded vessel by railway over a tolerably 
level country, I see no reason to prevent rails being laid and a 
cradle constructed to run upon it that will carry a loaded ship at a 
moderate speed through the country without risk of injury. The 
cradle will require to be arranged so that the bottom of the ship 
shall receive continuous support over as much of its surface as 
possible, and it should be practicable to do this so that any straining 
caused by this railway transport will not exceed that met with by 
ships under the other conditions of their employment.” 

There are also strong favorable opinions to be found on this side 
of the water, from men of acknowledged scientific and practical 
ability and experience. The late Edward Hartt, United States Naval 
Constructor, states : 

“ With a substantial road-bed for your railway, on the easy grades 
across Tehuantepec, which, I understand, do not exceed one or two 
feet in the hundred, there can be no mechanical difficulty in the way 
of transporting loaded ships by railroad with entire safety to the 
vessel, whether they be built of wood or iron. The ship railway 
plan possesses the advantage of more rapid transit for the vessels, 
and its capacity could easily be increased to meet the future wants 
of commerce.” 

Mr. H. L. Fernald, Naval Constructor, U. S. N., states : 

“ Having carefully examined the plans and papers pertaining to 
your proposed ship railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, I do 
not hesitate to say that in my judgment there will be no difficulty 


22 


whatever in transporting, in the manner you propose, any properly 
built vessel with absolute safety.” 

Gen. Q. A. Gillmore, U. S. Army, states : 

“ In my judgment the construction of a ship railway across the 
Mexican Isthmus, in general accordance with your plan, is not only 
feasible as an engineering problem, but the successful maintenance 
and operation of such a road is entirely practicable as a business 
enterprise.” 

Col. Henry Flad, C. E., well known from his connection with the 
construction of the St. Louis bridge and other important works, states : 

“ First. That the first cost of the construction of a ship railroad 
will not be one-fourth of that of a ship canal. 

“ Second. That a ship railroad can be constructed in probably 
one-third of the time required to construct a canal. 

“ Third. That ships can be transported on such a railroad with 
absolute safety, and with the same dispatch as through a canal. 

“ Fourth. That the cost of maintenance will be less for a railroad 
than for the canal. * * * 

“ Fifth. That the ship railroad will, therefore, offer a safer and 
better investment for capital.” 

Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. N., states : 

“ I forward to you with great pleasure, an extract of a letter from 
Commodore Farquhar, commanding United States ship ‘ Quinne- 
baug,’ at present at Alexandria, Egypt. 

******* 

‘“I am of the opinion that Tehuantepec possesses the best route 
for transit. I do not see why a railroad capable of carrying a ship 
could not be built, and why the long slopes of our route should not 
be best. 

“ ‘ The fact of a harbor twenty-five miles long, on the Atlantic 
side, is of the utmost importance, more so than the one on the 
Pacific shore, because that is almost always a weather shore in that 
latitude.’ 

“ I send you the extract as a disinterested opinion of an accom¬ 
plished naval officer, not only as to the advantages of the. route of 
Tehuantepec, but as to the practicability of a ship railway across 
the Isthmus.” 

Gen. G. T. Beauregard states : 

“ I feel no hesitancy in saying, that I see no difficulty in construct¬ 
ing a railway strong enough to carry out the object referred to. It 
is only a question of the strength of the cradle to hold the ship, and 
the division of weight on a sufficient number of rails and wheels, 
which can certainly be accomplished by any engineer of ability and 


23 


ingenuity. As to the danger a loaded ship would incur in being 
transported on a smooth and well-built railway, it is all imaginary.” 

H. D. Whitcomb, C. E., formerly member of the commission which 
decided in favor of the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi river, 
and an engineer of recognized ability, states : 

“ Why should not your ship railway be practicable ? Ships have 
been hauled on marine railways for I know not how many years, 
and the hauling of larger ships a longer distance is only a develop¬ 
ment or expansion of this practice, as the steel roadway worked by 
locomotives is the development of the tramway, or the old incline 
worked by stationary power. The idea is worthy of the age, and to 
make it a success you have simply to improve and expand the 
details of the old marine railway and make it more perfect.” 

Very decided and favorable opinions have also been given in 
writing by Gen. Wm. Sooy Smith, C. E., Col. C. Shaler Smith, C. E., 
B. M. Harrod, C. E. and Prof. E. A. Fuertes of Cornell Univer¬ 
sity, who under Com. Shufeldt made the survey of the Tehuan¬ 
tepec Isthmus for a canal. Many other experts of acknowledged 
ability have given their approval of the ship railway method and 
their belief in its entire practicability. We wish to add to the above 
the following letters recently received, one from Capt. A. K. Miller, 
agent of the Inman Steamship Company, at New Orleans, and well 
known in that section of the country as a practical expert, and one 
also from Mr. Epes Sargent, which speaks for itself. 

“ A. K. Miller & Co., Ship and Steamship Agents, 

“37 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, June 18, 1885. 

“ E. L. Corthell, Esq., 34 Nassau Street, New York. 

“ Dear Sir :—I am in receipt of your esteemed letter of the 15th 
inst., and am much pleased to note you are quite well, and trust 
your enterprise will meet that support which it so justly deserves. 

“ In this connection, permit me to make some observations regard¬ 
ing your railway project for the transportation of ships across the 
Isthmus. 

“ As a practical seaman and commander of ships for many years, 
during which time I have had the occasion to raise and repair large 
ships in different styles of docks, marine railways, etc., I had formed, 
or rather had come to the conclusion that to raise a loaded ship in 
the manner proposed by Capt. Eads, and to transport her as sug¬ 
gested, would subject the ship to such strain that it would be 
simply impracticable, and could not succeed. 

“While your ship railway model was on exhibition at this city, I 
visited it on several occasions, and after a thorough examination 
of the manner of raising, application of rams and distribution of 



24 


lifting power, I have but one opinion regarding the question—which 
is, that ships of the largest class, loaded with full cargoes can be 
safely lifted, and transported in the manner proposed without sub¬ 
jecting them to any more strain than they would undergo during a 
sea passage, and in fact much less fatigue than they would encounter 
during gales of wind such as ships are at times subjected to in all 
oceans of the world. I trust you will be enabled to push your work 
to a speedy and successful issue. Your ship railway would largely 
develop trade in this quarter of the globe, and would also increase 
shipments and traffic from the Pacific coast. 

“Very truly yours, A. K. Miller.” 


“ Washington, June 25, 1885. 

“ E. L. Corthell, Esq., 

“ Dear Sir :—Your letter of the 15th inst. came duly to hand. 
Sickness and excess of business must be my excuse for delay in 
answering. 

“ In reply to your questions, I would state that I was Manager and 
Superintendent of the Marine Railway at Nassau, N. P., Bahamas, 
for ten years, and during that time—as near as I can remember—I 
hauled out and repaired between 800 and 900 vessels, about one- 
third of which were steamers, and perhaps one-fifth of them loaded. 

“ As we charged so much per ton for cargo on board, as far as 
practicable the vessels were discharged before being taken out. 

“ My experience was that it was easier and safer to take out a 
loaded vessel than one in ballast. The railway was about 800 feet 
long, and similar in all respects to your model, the principle being 
the same. There was not one dollar’s damage done to any vessel in 
hauling out while I had charge of the railway. 

“ This, I believe, answers all your questions. 

“ Yours respectfully, Epes Sargent, 

“338 Penna. Avenue.” 

The whole subject was very thoroughly canvassed by the Senate 
Committee of the United States Congress, and they summed up the 
evidence as follows :— 

“ The testimony upon the subject is so overwhelming and con¬ 
clusive in its character that the Committee has no hesitation in 
reporting that the construction of a ship railway and its successful 
operation are entirely practicable.” 

It should be stated that other ship railways have been projected ; 
one, as early as 1872 by Messrs. Brunlees and Webb, civil engineers, 
of Great Britain, to be built across British Honduras, on the Ameri¬ 
can Isthmus, the plans for which were quite well perfected. Mr. 
John Fowler projected a ship railway to be built in Egypt as an 



25 


alternative plan to the Suez Canal, and also one for transferring 
vessels at the Third Cataract of the Nile. Mr. H. G. C. Ketchum, 
Mem. Inst. C. E., Great Britain, has not only projected a ship 
railway across the Isthmus of Chignecto, between Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick, but has obtained from the Dominion government 
a concession by which that government guarantees one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars net revenue per annum, which is about 
four per cent, on the estimated cost of the railway. 

It remains now to show very briefly the great advantage of the 
ship railway over any other known method of Isthmian transit. The 
essential principles involved with many corroborating facts in proof, 
have been stated recently by us in a paper read before the Ameri¬ 
can Society of Civil Engineers, at its annual convention, in June of 
this year, on the subject of “ Canals and Railroads, Ship Canals and 
Ship Railways.” We invite your attention to this paper for more 
detailed information. 

About two thousand miles of canals in the United States, nearly 
one-half of all that have been built, have been abandoned. These 
abandoned canals cost originally nearly fifty million dollars. This 
fact alone proves that the ordinary canal cannot compete with an 
ordinary railway. The cause of their failure to perform, at this day, 
what is required of a means of transportation it is not difficult to find. 

The movement of a boat in the restricted channel of a barge or 
ship canal is entirely different from its movement in the unrestricted 
water-way of the ocean. Assuming that the economical speed of a 
canal boat is two miles per hour, which is about correct, a speed of 
six miles per hour would require twenty-seven times as much 
expenditure of power ; that is, experiment and actual practice in 
many carefully noted instances show that the power required to 
move the boat in a canal increases as the cubes of the velocities. To 
those who desire to examine this matter further, there will be found 
all through the proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
of Great Britain, and in the reports on Canals and Railways before 
the British Parliament, abundant statements and illustrations, given 
by some of the best practical and acknowledged experts of the 
world, confirming our assertions. Such men as Prof. Barlow, Robert 
Stephenson, Mr. Bidder. Sir Robert Rawlinson, Sir John Hawk- 
shaw, and Sir John Rennie, may be quoted as authority for the 
statement that canals cannot compete with railways. In an experi¬ 
ment made by Sir John Rennie, on the Grand Junction Canal, 
it was found that with a light boat of only nine inches draught, 
seventy feet long and four feet wide only, the power required in- 


26 


creased twenty-four fold in increasing the speed from two and a half 
to twelve miles an hour. 

The boat or steamer in its passage through the water in a restricted 
channel, creates a hill up which it is constantly climbing ; the more 
rapid the speed the steeper the hill. Thus the boat is absolutely 
compelled to move at a very slow speed ; in fact it would be impos¬ 
sible to attain in a canal its normal ocean speed ; the power required 
would be infinite. 

The history of transportation in England, since the advent of 
railroads—that, too, in a country specially adapted to canal trans¬ 
portation—shows how utterly useless it is for canals to try to compete 
with railroads. 

Mr. James Allport, General Manager Midland Railway, stated 
before a Canal Committee of Parliament, in 1883, that, even in the 
coal business, canals could not compete with railways. 

“ In 30 years the railway-borne coal into London has increased 
from 377,000 tons in 1852 to 6,546,000 tons in 1882.” The canal- 
borne coal in the same year was only 7,964 tons ; the canals reached 
some of the best coal districts of England, and were not under the 
control of railroads. 

“ I am quite sure of this, and I say it after upwards of 40 years’ 
experience as a railway manager, that the canals cannot compete 
with the railways, whatever they do.” 

In his annual address, as President, to the Institution of Civil 
Engineers of Great Britain, in 1846, Sir John Rennie, speaking of 
the attempts to obtain speed on the canals without largely increasing 
the power, said : “ All this, however, came too late, for although it 
would have been readily acknowledged at an earlier period, and 
might, perhaps, for a while have retarded the railway system, yet 
when once the latter was established its superiority became manifest 
and its progress became irresistible. Taken simply at the velocity 
of two and a half miles per hour, the resistance, or friction, offered 
to the tractive power by a given load is in favor of the canal, but as 
this resistance increases with velocity at a far greater ratio on the 
canal than on the railway, the advantage with the increased velocity 
becomes decidedly in favor of the railway.” 

Since 1846, railway engineers and managers have learned to 
build and operate with greater economy. Greater concentrated 
power has been applied to the locomotive, larger cars have come 
into use, steel rails have lessened the friction of rails and wheels, 
more suitable and improved running gear have reduced the axle 


27 


friction, and great improvements in the locomotive have still more 
lessened the friction of power. What was considered a locomotive 
giant hauling on a level a few five-ton “goods wagons” in 1846, 
would be a baby compared with the new “ Decapod” of the Baldwin 
Locomotive Works already spoken of. The principal dimensions of 
this monster locomotive are as follows : Boiler, 64in. in diameter; 
cylinders, 22x26in. ; total heating surface, 1942 sq. ft. ; weight of 
the locomotive and tender in working order, 102 net tons. The 
capacity of this powerful engine is 3600 gross tons on a level. 

The cost of hauling freight has been so much reduced by the num¬ 
berless improvements on the railroads that 6-10 of a mill per ton per 
mile has been found to cover the cost of fuel, stores, train hands and 
repairs to locomotives. The load capacity of cars has increased 
from about 20,000 pounds in 1876 to 60,000 pounds in 1885. The 
weight of the cars, however, has increased less than 2000 pounds. 
In these two facts will be found the most important reasons for 
the reduction in the Cost, of late years, of hauling freight on rail¬ 
ways. It also goes to show what can be accomplished if this ten¬ 
dency is carried out to its legitimate extent. We believe the time 
will come, and that, too, at no distant day, when, instead of the 
comparatively small box, moving on two rails, in which freight is 
now carried, there will be hauled on the railways the immense cargo 
box, covering four or six rails, with a capacity of three million 
pounds, and when that day arrives freight will be hauled for 
two-tenths of a mill per ton per mile, and will not cost over one 
mill for the entire cost of operation, maintenance and general 
expenses. There has also been a great reduction in the cost of 
repairs to locomotives. On the Pennsylvania Railroad the cost 
has been reduced between 1865 and 1881 from $16.48 to $6.02 
per one hundred miles run. The mileage of locomotives has 
increased from 19,240 in 1870 to 27,644 in 1881, and the average 
ton mileage of the locomotive has increased from 2,100,000 to 
5,000,000. The three main trunk lines into New York City from 
the West moved, in 1883, 46,177,223 tons of freight, increasing the 
amount over four-fold since 1868 ; but the New York State canals 
in the same period decreased in the volume of freight from 6,442,225 
tons to 5,664,056 tons. The least expensive method of towing on 
the canal is more expensive than the hauling on the best rail¬ 
ways. The running expense on the Erie Canal at an average speed 
of 2.1 miles per hour, is i mill per ton per mile on freight hauled by 
steam canal boat with consort, the least expensive method of any 
by canal. Including all expenses, except terminal cost and mainte- 


28 


nance of canal, the expense is 3.15 mills per ton. Even this cost is 
based on full loads both ways, for the boats cannot be run except 
at a loss, if they are sent even one way partially loaded. On Belgian 
Canals the cost of towing alone is nearly 5 mills per ton per mile, 
and on the Willebroeck Canal in England, with six to seven boats 
in a tow, steam towing costs 2 mills per ton running cost. These 
and many similar facts are gathered from a careful study of the cost 
of moving freight on canals and railways in England, France, Bel¬ 
gium and the United States. 

In a letter dated August 3, 1885, from a prominent railway 
manager, is the following sentence: “ If the tonnage which passes 
through this canal (Erie) was delivered for transportation to the 
West Shore Railway, it could be hauled and delivered more cheaply 
than by the water route, and in less than one-quarter of the time/’ 

Grain is now being hauled from Chicago to Atlantic ports by the 
all rail route for two mills per ton mile. 

These comparative facts and opinions are given to show the 
vast superiority of the ordinary railroad over the ordinary barge 
canal in dispatch, economy and adaptability to the wants of trans¬ 
portation. 

If we extend the comparison and examine the relative merits of 
ship canals and ship railways, we will find a still greater differ¬ 
ence in favor of the latter. The resistance to the movement of the 
vessel still exists, but in a greater degree ; a larger mass moves 
through a comparatively more restricted channel. The following 
from London Engineering, February 1, 1884, discussing the effects of 
navigation in a contracted water-way, will give scientific confirma¬ 
tion of our statement : 

“ It is a universally recognized fact that vessels steer better, are 
more easily propelled and are altogether more manageable when 
moving through a capacious water-way. 

“ The vessel in motion has to be forced through the water, and the 
particles are thus pressed one against the other and, in confined 
spaces, against the bottom and sides. Thus a greater friction is kept 
up, which reacts upon the hull, deadens her speed and at the same 
time prevents an equable flow of water to her rudder, and in the 
case of a screw, to the propeller also ; as a consequence the vessel 
becomes unmanageable. 

“ When a craft going even at moderate speed ‘ smells the bottom,’ 
as the term is, she probably ends in running ashore athwart the 
navigation.” 

Mr. Scott Russell, in his “ Marine Architecture,” page 237, speaking 


29 


of the resistance to a vessel in passing through the restricted channel 
of a canal, says, “ The consequences of this rapid increase of head 
accummulation ” (in front of the vessel,) “are very serious.” 

“ First.—It throws the ship’s head up out of trim. Next.—It 
increases the pressure of water on her bow\ Third.—It makes her 
travel up hill. Fourth.—It produces a backward current along her 
sides ; and these hindrances to speed accummulate rapidly, much 
more rapidly than as the square of the resistance,” (the rule on the 
ocean,) “ until the amount may become insuperable ; that is, many 
times the resistance due to the law of the square of the speed.” 

He proves by actual experiments that the additional resistance to 
that in a free water-way increases between 1 mile and 7-f-J- miles per 
hour, from 4-7 of a pound, or ton, to 128 . 

“ It is now necessary to notice a complimentary effect to that of 
accummulation in advance of the vessel—it is subsidence, or water 
astern. It being known, that the excavated water is sent on in 
advance of the vessel, it becomes plain that the channel out of which 
this water has been taken must have its height lowered by the subsi¬ 
dence of the water into the vacant canal out of which the ship has 
been drawn.” 

In the Welland Ship Canal the speed is one mile per hour, and 
the same on the North Holland Ship Canal to the port of Amster¬ 
dam—(Internal Commerce U. S., 1885, p. 494.) 

In the Suez Canal—the most important ship canal in the world, 
the time required to pass through, one hundred miles, is fifty hours, 
or at a rate of two miles per hour, and about fifteen miles of the 
distance is through open lakes. The speed by regulation is limited 
to five miles, but this is a dangerous one for steamers, for they are 
liable to run aground. 

It was stated in evidence before the Canal Committee of Parlia¬ 
ment that in 1882 the passage of ten ships through the canal would 
choke it. The economical speed in a restricted channel like those 
proposed on the American isthmus is not over two miles per hour, 
and the relative running cost per ton per mile in the ship canal and 
on the ocean is as three mills to one-half mill, (Six to one.) 

In comparing the four methods—canals, railroads, ship canals and 
ship railways—it may be stated that from three to four mills per ton 
per mile will cover the entire cost of moving freight on a well- 
managed railroad in this country, at the present time. This cost 
includes the numerous and expensive handlings of the goods, and 
the local as well as through freights. The cost of handling goods is 


30 


approximately the same as the cost of hauling for distances up to one 
hundred miles ; hence the immense advantage of the ship railway over 
the ordinary railway is seen at once in this particular. The method 
we have described to you, involves no handling ; the hatchways are 
not even opened. Another great advantage over ordinary railways, is, 
that more goods are carried at one time, thus economizing pow¬ 
er and labor ; instead of a car moving 75 tons, as ordinarily on 
railroads, we have one car carrying, say 1800 tons. All the expenses 
per ton will consequently be largely reduced. Another fact works 
to the advantage of the ship railway, viz.: friction on journals 
increases but little with the additional weight imposed upon them. 
The ordinary railway places about three tons on a wheel, but the ship 
railway six to nine tons. The detailed estimate of the cost of hauling 
freight on the ship railway shows that it can be hauled from ocean 
to ocean for less than 30 cents per ton, allowing for mainte¬ 
nance, renewals, terminal expenses, turn-tables, locomotives, tele¬ 
graph and incidental and general expenses, in fact all expenses, 
except interest on capital. 

In reference to the comparative cost of construction of the ship 
railway and the projected canals on the Isthmus, it is difficult to 
give any precise facts, on account of the great discrepancy that 
exists between the canal estimates. The cost of the Nicaragua 
Canal by various estimates lies somewhere between ninety-five 
million and two hundred million dollars ; the Panama Canal was to 
have been constructed for one hundred and twenty-five million dol¬ 
lars, but as one hundred million and more has been expended, and 
not ten per cent, of the excavation has been made it is evident that 
the final cost will largely exceed the original estimates. It is not 
our purpose to draw detailed comparisons between these three 
methods proposed, but simply to show what can be done by the ship 
railway method, and the great superiority of the route over any other 
possible one. The objections to the two routes and methods above 
mentioned are briefly, as follows : 

First.—The Panama Sea Level Canal. 

1. Its immense cost makes it financially impracticable. It could 
never command a traffic that would produce a net revenue of over 
one a?id one-half per cent, on the invested capital. 

2. The cost of maintenance will be very great, The excessive 
rainfall on the clayey slopes of the enormous excavations, from one 
hundred to four hundred feet high, will wash into the canal prism 
a large amount of earth and detritus, to remove which will be ex¬ 
ceedingly expensive. 


31 


3. The control of the torrential Chagres river will be not only 
very expensive but doubtful. The possible breaking away of the 
dams and guard banks of its new channel, which is to suspend'the 
torrent in the air, would be simply ruinous to the canal. 

4. A tide lock on the Pacific—where the range of the tides is 
often 24 feet—the narrow restricted channel with its steep slopes, 
often rough and rocky, and the sharp curves in its alignment will 
make the passage slow, difficult and dangerous. 

5. The long detour for ships, made necessary by its unfortunate 
location at the southern extremity of the Isthmus, will be very incon¬ 
venient and expensive to commerce. 

6. Located in a region always avoided by navigators, on account 
of its prevailing calms, sailing commerce will be prevented from 
using it. 

7. The unstable government and the insurrectionary character of 
the people, through whose country it is to be built, will lead to 
serious complications w r ith other governments and danger to the 
integrity of the passageway. 

Second .— The Nicaragua Canal. 

1. The most complete and careful estimate of the cost of this 
work, made by Maj. W. McFarland, U. S. Engineers, is $140,000,000, 
with labor assumed at $1.00 per day ; whereas the experience at 
Panama shows that this should be doubled , increasing the cost to at 
least $200,000,000. 

2. The cost of restoring the ruined harbor at Greytown on the 
Caribbean Sea, is estimated by Maj. McFarland, at $14,000,000. 
The maintenance of the harbor, especially its approach and entrance, 
will be very difficult and expensive. The harbor on the Pacific is 
simply an open roadstead. 

3. Its great length, 186 miles ; the locks—fourteen to twenty in 
number—required to lift the vessels over a summit of more than 100 
feet, and the restricted channel through which they must steam or 
be towed, will prevent an average speed of two miles per hour 
for the whole distance, including even the greater speed possible in 
the lake at the summit level. It will therefore require about four 
days to pass through this canal—a longer time than would be occu¬ 
pied by a steamer going 400 miles further south and passing 
through the Panama canal ; the expense, also, would be greater. 
The running expense per ton to the steamer would be at least 6 o 
cents , while the docking and hauling over the Tehuantepec Ship Rail¬ 
way will be only 12 cents. If the cost to sailing vessels is compared, 
the difference in favor of the Ship Railway will be still greater. 


32 


4. The location of this canal is 800 miles south of Tehuantepec 
a route about 1500 miles longer than that by the Ship Railway for all 
commerce between our Gulf and Pacific ports. 

5. Its location in a feeble Central American State ; the dispute 
between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as to the right to the territory to 
be traversed by the canal; the complications existing between 
England and the United States through the Clayton-Bulwer treaty 
and the indefensibility of the approaches, make it most unwise for 
this country to undertake the work, or become in any way compli¬ 
cated with it. 

The ship railway is above the floods and built upon the surface 
of the ground, and is therefore not subject to those conditions that 
often render the maintenance of works expensive and sometimes 
impracticable ; it is capable of indefinite enlargement ; the cost of 
moving vessels is less than the cost of steaming or towing through 
either of the canals. 

A very liberal concession was granted for the ship railway by the 
Mexican Government, May 28, 1881. 

It provides for the construction and operation for ninety-nine 
years of a ship railway with its corresponding lines of telegraph 
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The right of way is granted 
eight hundred metres wide, reduced in town lands to four 
hundred metres, and increased where stations are necessary 
to sixteen hundred metres. The public lands within this belt 
are conceded gratis to the company. Full authority is given 
for the prompt condemnation of all private lands needed. Four 
thousand two hundred square kilometres of public lands, equal to a 
million acres, are granted in aid of the enterprise. The right is 
given to import free of duty all kinds of machinery, instruments, 
coal and materials necessary for the construction, operation and 
maintenance of the works during ninety-nine years. 

Vessels, passengers and merchandise in transit, will be free of all 
kinds of duties, general as well as local, during the time of the con¬ 
cession. 

The property and capital invested in the enterprise, its bonds and 
shares of stock are exempted from all taxation or contribution of 
any kind, except that of revenue stamps, the Constitution of Mexico 
prohibiting the release of the latter tax by Congress.' 

Authority is given to collect a maximum toll on each vessel not 
exceeding five dollars per cubic metre, for each metre contained in 
a parallelopipedon, of which the dimensions shall be the greatest 


33 


length and the greatest breadth of the vessel measured at the surface 
of the water, and her greatest immersed depth. This would be 
about $8.00 per ton on the cargo carried. For each passenger 
carried across, a sum of not exceeding $15.00 may be charged. 

Gold and silver and precious stones may be charged a maximum 
rate not greater than one per cent, of their value. 

The right is granted to collect wharfage dues and tonnage dues 
not exceeding $1.00 per registered ton. 

Passage over the railway shall be open for all the vessels of all the 
nations not at war with Mexico, and the Republic binds itself not to 
close to ocean commerce during the term of the concession either of 
the two terminal ports of the ship railway, one in the Gulf, the other 
in the Pacific, except in case of war. 

In consideration of the magnitude of the work, the company may 
obtain aid from any foreign government either in money or in guar¬ 
antees, and hypothecate the net revenues to it, and may transport 
its mails, ships, property, and appurtenances free of charges, and may 
reduce the tariffs on its commerce, and the prices of passage. 

In the event of failure on the part of the company to comply with 
any such stipulations made with a foreign government, such foreign 
government shall have the right to enforce its claims before the 
courts of Mexico, in accordance with the laws of Mexico, but in no 
case can such foreign government acquire the ownership of the 
works, or the rights emanating therefrom. 

The commercial advantage of the Tehuantepec Ship Railway 
may be seen from the present expense of shipping goods by the 
various routes. The cost of freight from San Francisco to New 
York, by the Cape Horn route, is $10.00 to $15.00 per ton ; on grain 
to Liverpool an average of $16.00 ; over the Panama railroad 
$20.00 to $25.00 ; Qver the trans-continental railroads, $25.00 to 
$30.00. The Tehuantepec route will save one-half the distance over 
the Cape Horn route, and will practically reduce the cost one-half. 
The saving in distance on the main routes of commerce by the 
Tehuantepec route may be seen by the following table of. com¬ 
parative distances, compiled by the United States Coast Survey : 


34 


TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES. 


FROM NEW YORK TO HONG KONG. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal. 

Panama R. R. . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Suez Canal. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO MELBOURNE. 

Via Cape Horn . 

Suez Canal. . 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO HONOLULU. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. Ii. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

LIVERPOOL TO HONG KONG. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

LIVERPOOL TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec... 

LIVERPOOL TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal. 

Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 


Excess over 
Total Tehuantepec 


Distance. 


20,379 miles. 
16,945 “ 

13,596 “ 

12,953 “ 
11,602 “ 


19,802 “ 
18,085 “ 

15,527 “ 
11,256 “ 
10,006 “ 


16,871 “ 

16,719 *“ 
13,890 “ 
10,305 “ 
9,424 “ 


15,215 “ 

15,171 “ 

15,019 “ 

11,826 “ 
11,065 “ 


15,826 “ 
7,939 “ 
6,663 “ 


15,687 “ 
6,063 “ 

4,890 “ 


20,606 “ 
16,471 “ 

15,722 “ 
15,253 “ 


19,400 “ 
17,653 “ 
14,540 “ 
13,455 “ 


16,221 “ 
14,645 “ 
13,897 “ 
13,312 “ 
12,809 “ 


Route. 

8,777 miles. 
5,343 “ 
1,994 “ 
1,351 “ 


9,796 “ 
8,079 “ 
5,521 “ 

1,250 “ 


7,447 “ 
7,295 “ 

4,466 “ 
881 “ 


4,150 “ 
4,106 “ 

3,954 “ 
761 “ 


9,163 “ 

1,276 “ 


10,797 “ 
1,173 “ 


5,353 “ 
1,218 “ 
469 “ 


5,945 “ 
4,198 “ 
1,085 “ 


3,412 “ 
1,836 “ 
1,088 “ 
503 “ 












































85 


TABLE OF COMPARATIVE DISTANCES IN STATUTE MILES. 


LIVERPOOL TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO IIONG KONG. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO YOKOHAMA. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Suez Canal. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO AUCKLAND, N. Z. 

Via Suez Canal. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Cape Horn. ... . 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO MELBOURNE. 

Via Suez Canal. 

Cape Horn. 

Cape of Good Hope. 

Panama R. R. 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO HONOLULU. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW YORK TO VALPARAISO. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama II. R. . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

NEW ORLEANS TO VALPARAISO. 

Via Cape Horn. 

Panama R. R . 

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 


Total 

Distance. 


15,803 miles, 
8,885 “ 
8,270 “ 


20,804 “ 
17,485 “ 
15,108 “ 

12,308 “ 
10,273 “ 


20,227 “ 

18,625 “ 
17,039 “ 

10,011 “ 

8,037 “ 


18,381 “ 

17,259 “ 
14,314 “ 
9,059 “ 
8,095 “ 


10,083 “ 
15,040 “ 
15,500 “ 
11,181 “ 
9,730 “ 


10,251 “ 

7,294 “ 
5,334 “ 


10,112 “ 
5,418 “ 
3,501 “ 


10,051 “ 

5,417 “ 
0,369 “ 


10,476 “ 
4,772 “ 
5,040 “ 


Excess over 
Tehuantepec 
Route. 

7,527 miles. 
009 “ 


10,531 “ 

7,212 “ 
4,835 “ 
2,035 “ 


11,590 “ 
9,988 “ 
8,402 “ 
1,974 “ 


10,280 “ 
9,104 “ 
0,219 “ 
1,504 “ 


0,947 “ 
5,904 “ 
5,824 “ 
1,445 “ 


10,917 “ 
1,900 “ 


12,551 “ 
1,857 “ 


3,082 “ 


5,430 “ 





































36 


The Tehuantepec Route has some special advantages :— 
The great increase in wheat production on the Pacific coast and the 
still more rapid development certain to follow the opening of the 
Ship Railway, give an assurance that fully one quarter of the tonnage 
will be wheat. On account of remaining so long in the tropics the 
Underwriters are not willing to insure it except in bags, which cost 
$2,000,000 per annum, or $1.51 per ton, or 4 cents per bushel. This 
expense can be saved by the Tehuantepec Route, for it is scarcely 
further south than the Florida straits. The average extra cost per 
ton by the longer distance and time required by the Panama and 
Nicaragua Routes, is 50 cents. This saving is made on both 
steamers and sailing ships. Thus we have a total advantage of 
$2.01 per ton, saying nothing of the excess in cost of canal over 
ship railway transportation. 

Another important commercial advantage is seen from the follow¬ 
ing facts : First. The distance from New York to the Pacific at 
Tehuantepec is nearly iooo miles shorter than across the continent. 
Second. Seventy per cent, of the far Pacific trade is from countries 
lying south of Tehuantepec. Third. The distance from Liverpool 
to many Pacific ports is shorter by Tehuantepec than by Suez. The 
present through business by the trans-continental railroads, from 
countries west of San Francisco, is comparatively unimportant, 
and it is so, and must remain so, from the fact that the Suez and 
Cape Horn routes have the advantage by not requiring trans-ship¬ 
ment. These latter and the Panama Railroad are the routes that 
the Ship Railway will compete with successfully, and from which it 
will draw an immense business. By the time the ship railway is 
opened the trans-continental railroads will have found, in the vast 
and rapidly developed country which they traverse, all the business 
they can handle—business that has its source in the country lying 
between the Atlantic and Pacific, and which the ship railway can 
never reach. There is, therefore, no rivalry between the two. The 
real rivalry will be with routes with which the railroads cannot pos¬ 
sibly compete. 

The strategic advantage cannot be over-estimated. If Mexico and 
the United States should guarantee the protection of the Railway it 
will not be possible for all the world to interfere with it. There are 
five lines of railways building from the United States into Mexico, by 
which an army of 100,000 men could be concentrated at the Isthmus 
in a few days, and our navy could easily defend the approaches, 
especially on the Gulf. The capacious and naturally protected 


37 


harbors, one in the Coatzacoalcos 25 miles in length, and the other in 
Lake Superior on the Pacific, furnish excellent harbors of refuge for 
commerce. 

This route is essentially American, benefiting as it does, more than 
any other, the commerce of this country. 

The tonnage that may be expected on completing the Ship Rail¬ 
way has been ascertained in detail from reliable sources. It is given 
in following table : 


DETAILED STATEMENT OF TONNAGE EXPECTED 
OVER THE SHIP RAILWAY 


In 1889. 

Tons 1883. 


Actual Tonnage 
carried by steam 

Routes by which Commerce Moves. and sail on routes 

longer than via 
Tehuantepec. 

1. Panama Railroad. 77,958 

2. U. S. Pacific Coast with Atlantic via 

Cape Horn. 287,341 

3. Atlantic Ports with Countries west of 

Cape Horn. 349,454 

4. U. S. Pacific Coast with foreign Coun¬ 

tries east of Cape Horn. 1,423,737 

5. European Countries with Countries west 

of Cape Horn, other than U. S. 1,828,G21 

G. British Columbia (Pacific Coast) with 

Europe. 125,000 

7. Slow bulky freights now going over 

Transcontinental lines. 400,000 

8. Fifty per cent, of tonnage now going 

from Asiatic Countries to Europe via 

Cape of Good Hope. 400,000 

9. New trade to be developed by Ship 

Railway between Gulf Ports of U. S. 

and Mexico and Pacific Ocean. .... 


Total, 4,842,111 


Tons 1889. 

Estimated from 
ratio of increase of 
commerce on the 
routes from 1879 to 
1883, and from new 
business to be 
developed. 

GO,000 
359,081 


489,135 


2,135,G05 


2,285,77G 


235,000 
GOO,000 

400,000 

1,000,000 

7,5G4,597 


The total of 7,504,597 tons very closely agrees with the estimate 
of the Panama Canal Congress, held in 1879, made on an entirely 
different basis, and estimated for a less advantageous route. 

The net income that can reasonably be anticipated on even four 
million tons is $10,800,000, or 14^ per cent, on $75,000,000 capital, 
in stock and bonds. With the rapid and steady development 













38 


of commerce, and with the immense advantage of this route 
and method, we may assuredly expect a rapid increase in the ton¬ 
nage transported ; therefore, not only commerce but capital will 
find it profitable to encourage and assist this great enterprise. 

The important results that will certainly follow the construction of 
this great work can hardly be conceived of ; beneficial to commerce, 
and through it to the world’s varied and growing industries. 

When the Ship Railway is completed and ships pass from ocean to 
ocean, the last barrier to commerce will have been removed. The 
world then will be literally circumnavigable. The race will then 
possess those commercial, industrial, political, social and religious 
advantages that have become more and more imperative as civiliza¬ 
tion and religion have sought out the nations and exerted upon 
them their benign influences. 

It has been well said : “ The chief element in the prosperity of 
every State and Nation is the economy of transportation of persons 
and property. It is the most marked fact in the difference between 
civilization and barbarism.” In assisting such an enterprise as the 
Tehuantepec Ship Railway, we are working in the true line of 
progress and for the advancement of the race in all its highest possi¬ 
bilities and its loftiest purposes. 

This project we have discussed is the conception and the work of 
no impractical enthusiast and visionary. The important victories 
gained on the Mississippi River, in the civil war, by the formidable 
iron clad fleet built at St. Louis ; the massive piers founded, for all 
time to come, on the bed rock of the mighty river, one hundred feet 
down through the shifting quicksands ; the graceful arches that span 
the turbid flood ; the deep and commodious channel for commerce 
at the mouth of the Great River, carved through the obstructing 
sand bars—all are sureties that the projector and promoter of this 
grander plan, has himself solved the problems, met the difficulties, 
appreciated and overcome the obstacles, and that he will, with the 
aid of Science and the broad-minded statesmen of these two sister 
republics, and the enlightened capital of the world, complete the 
work that will be left as a grand heritage to posterity and an en¬ 
during monument to the constructive genius of James B. Eads. His 
high purpose and firm resolve can best be told in his own words 
spoken, not long since before a Boston audience : 

“ We propose to bring the Golden Gate eleven thousand miles nearer 
by sea to Plymouth Rock than it is to-day. We propose to open a 


39 


direct line from the Atlantic Seaboard to six hundred millions of 
people on the islands and shores of i.hc Pacific who need, not only 
the products of Boston, her mills, her factories and her workshops, 
but also the elevating and Christianizing influences which will flow 
from a more intimate intercourse with her men and women, and a 
more extensive knowledge of the institutions of art, science, litera¬ 
ture and benevolence, which illuminate and adorn the nations of 
the Atlantic. This is our task. 

“ When this work is completed, as I am sure it will be, and that 
long before a canal is cut across tlje American Isthmus, its benefits 
will be felt by our fellow men all over the world; not only inTessen- 
ing the cost of transportation on the necessaries and luxuries of life, 
and in shortening the long weary, trackless distances which now 
separate nations from each other, and by opening new markets for 
the multitude of commodities which are interchanged by the various 
peoples of the earth, but also by bringing distant communities 
into more intimate social and commercial relations with each other, 
whereby the better sympathies and sentiments of each will be pro¬ 
moted, their prejudices removed, the amenities of life increased, and 
the benefits of civilization, science and religion more surely tend to 
the increase of ‘ peace on earth, good will to men.’ 

“ This work, when finished, will be the realization of the ardent 
wish of statesmen and philanthropists everywhere ; the dream of 
kings and conquerors during the last three hundred and fifty years, 
and a fitting supplement to the grand achievements which have 
marked the progress of the nineteenth century.” 



40 


DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 


Referring to Plate I, of detailed illustrations. 

Fig. 1 shows the process of running down the adjusting nut 
of the supports to a bearing on the plates of the cross girders. 
The details of the support are shown in Fig. 4, with the hydraulic 
ram forcing it up to its position under the vessel. A , is the rod 
with the thread cut in it; B , the adjusting nut ; C, the girder ; 
Z>, the ram. 

Fig. 2, Cross-section of the pontoon, towers and carriage. A , is 
a side support; E, G, F , the adjustable hinged girth ; Z>, the ram ; 
ZZ, the towers for the pressure pumps which are on the top of the 
towers ; Z, is the pipe through which the water is withdrawn from 
the pontoon by the centrifugal pump ; J, is the reservoir from which 
the water is taken to force a pressure through the pipes to the rams ; 
K , is one of the cylinders for the hydraulic governors. 

Fig. 3, shows a part of the deck of the pontoon with the rails and 
the lines of rams projecting above the deck. j 

Plate II, shows plan and detail of railway carriage. 

Plate III, is a perspective view of the pontoon and railway cradle. 

Plate IV, exhibits perspective view, plan and sectional elevation 
of the floating turn-table. 

Plate V, is a view of a steamer in transit. 

Plate VI, map of Isthmus of Tehuantepec and location of Ship 
Railway. 


32334—Bo wne & Co., Printers, 124 Pearl Street, New York. 



Plate / 



The Interoceanic Ship Railway.—Sectional Elevation and Details oe Pontoon and Railway Cradle 

(Reproduced from “ Scientific American.'") 































































































































































































































Plate 11 



Fig. 2.—A SECTION OF THE GREAT CAR. 



Fig. 1.— GENERAL VIEW OF THE GREAT CAR. 

I’LAN AND Detail of Railway Carriage.—( Reproduced from London “ Engineering”) 






















































































































































































































4 














raflffjpj 


Plate III, 



The Interoceanic Ship Railway.—The Lifting Pontoon and Railway Cradle. 

[perspective view.] 

(Reproduced from “Scientific American. ") 









































































































Plate IT 



The Interoceanic Ship Railway.—The Floating Turntable. 

(Reproduced from “Scientific American."} 



PLAN. 





















































































































































































































Plate 



The Interoceanic Ship Railway—A Steamer in Transit. 

(Reproduced from “Scientific American") 





























































Plate VI, 



TFHUANTEEEO 


g's f 

1 Vi 

iwmM 


* &!£' &isdwj&£t 


' AXAQUi 


/ CERRD 
'ENCANTADA 


SAN MARIA 


1 I, ACUA E5C0 
APA _— . i 

Htot n *<'af7a\\ i. 


Oa%CE/ACUA 


BOCA BARR: 


hOCOAPA 


ilTIPAN 


TACAMICHAPA'^. 


Yh (n/m ECA 
otTapa 


^SMmimSS 


almacre: 


EiitTE/PEC 


T NAT IT I AN 1 


C OCEANS 


from ATLANTI 


MEXICO 


UNITED ?T 


ISHUATUNi 


lCOALCOS 


COATZACOALCOS 


Map of Isthmus of Tehuaf 


Reproduced from “Science.") 





































































































































































































































































































































































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